and homes, that what the president is talking about is health reform that will lower costs, it's going to protect you against unfair insurance regulations, but if you like what you have with your employer based health care you can absolutely keep it. the president has said that all the way throughout. people shouldn't be listening to the misinformation that's floating out around out there on the internet. >> sometimes it's hard to figure out what is misinformation. i tell you what people keep sending me questions about health care reform. one is whether we're heading toward a single payor system and second whether there's going to be some sort of rationing that excludes senior citizens from getting good, quality care. >> let me take those one by one. first of all the president has made it very, very clear that the health reform legislation that we're talking about, health insurance reform legislation that will eliminate regulations that are now locking people out

of the system because they have a preexisting condition or your insurance company has decided to cut off your insurance because u maybe you're sick or you need an operation, that they're not going to spend anymore money on you. those are the things that are going to change. but if you like your health care at work, you can keep it. he has said that absolutely consistently. there's four out of five bills that come from members of congress that make that absolutely clear. with respect to seniors, no one is talking about rationing. what we're talking about is building upon the system we have, making it more efficient, lowering costs, creating affordable options. >> every single one on cnbc when i have said, the president said over and over again, that if you like your health care, you can keep it thach, they have said t not the case in the long run. the government not trying to make a profit, it will

inevitably drive private companies out of business and chances are you will not get to keep the insurance you have now. >> nothing is going to happen to people who already have -- most people get their insurance at work through big companies that buy their insurance through group insurance. but for people who have very little insurance or they might work for a small business, those people will be allowed to buy, to choose between health insurance plans that would exist on the insurance exchange, kind of an insurance marketplace to people who don't have access to insurance now or affordable insurance now. for those folks, there will be affordable options, a lot of choice and a lot of competition for affordable options. that's all we're talking about. >> linda, thank you for joining us, we do appreciate you representing what the president is hoping to get out of health care reform. we have some breaking news to get to. louisville, kentucky, pounded by

heavy rain. >> the national weather service has declared a state of emergency. some areas have received over a half a foot of rain in the last few hours. >> susie lackey in kentucky sent us this video from her son who's in old louisville. and then videos that our viewers have sent in that have gotten stuck in high water. >> when you have 6 1/2 inches of rain in one hour, which is the most we have ever had in recorded history, it's pretty bad. all the underpasses are full. i have just come from the university of louisville, buildings are surrounded by water. we just had to get a swift water rescue boats in to move people out of those biuildings. we have four inches or so of water at churchill downs. the animal control facility, all

the dogs and cats, they're under water, we we're trying to get them out to other shelters. another storm is about to hit us with 50-mile-per-hour winds and another inch of rain they're telling us. >> what does the weather look like from here on out and what is the plan? we just had 2 1/2 to three hours of no rain. we have some breaking news coming from washington, d.c. where president obama has just entered as a spraz, turprise, t briefing room, let's listen in. >> happy birthday to you. >> thank you.

>> you got to blow it out to make it come true. hey! >> happy birthday! >> happy birthday to you! >> you're watching president obama with helen thomas, it's her birthday as well as the president's. >> but we're assuming they're not the same age. that was a joke. >> we wish for world peace. but she and i also had a common birthday wish, she said she hopes for a health care reform bill. how about a cupcake? >> no thanks. >> mr. president. >> happy birthday. >> all right, there you have it, a rather chaotic tescene at the

white house where president obama is wishing helen thomas a happy birthday. i looked up both their horoscopes and we found out. it had a bunch of pretty unfamous people. the most famous person. we're going to keep monitoring the white house press briefing in case something even more important than birthdays comes up. the national association for realtors said the pending home sales rose compare to the previous month. but nearly 10% compared to the same month of last year. the index looks at contracts to purchase previously owned homes. the last time it rose was in

july of 2003. let's take a look at how the numbers are affecting the day on wall street. right now you can see the dow is down 5 points, 9281. we're going back to the white house press briefing and they're talking about north korea right now. we'll listen in. >> the private mission that we weren't going to comment on while the former president was on the ground in north korea and as a result of that, i don't have anything more to add on this at this time. >> but you can understand why people can see this as a possible opening for more discussions with north korea. you understand why that's there? >> we -- this obviously is a very sensitive topic. we will hope to provide some more detail at a later point. our focus right now is on

insuring the safety of two journalists that are in north korea right now. >> i hope you will take a second question then. >> more likely a third, but go ahead. >> it appears the unemployment rate where the president's going tomorrow indiana has worsened since the president was last there. why is the president going there and what do you hope for the trip? >> the unemployment rate has gotten worse in elkhart since the president was there in february. it's gotten -- i think you could probably count on one or two hands -- >> there you have robert gibbs explaining that the president is heading back to elkhart, indiana where people are suffering really hard times. the unemployment rate jumped there again. people there aren't buying rvs

so a lot of layoffs in that city. and the president is trying to go out and let the american people know that he's concerned about getting jobs back in line. >> and before that, we had been listening for more details or for some answers to some questions about the situation in north korea and the two journalists that are there, as expected, he did not really address those questions, he said no comment, that's pretty much what we were expecting but we wanted to make sure. it. >> the former president clinton headed to north korea, he's trying to secure the release of two american journalists there. but the house said it didn't want to jeopardize the mission of the former president so they refuse to comment at all on that. let's go to nairobi where andrea mitchell is traveling with secretary of state hillary clinton. in what way could the former president make some progress in the release of the two journalists where other overtures have failed.

>> well, he's uniquely unable to because contessa and melissa, he has the standing, he's a former president, very well regarded in north korea because he came so close to normalizing relations with the north but they just ran out of time in the last two months of his presidency and his policy was then reversed by the incoming george w. bush administration. he has a lot of credibility, he's of course the spouse of the secretary of state. there was one very funny moment at the state department briefing in washington today, where robert woods was asked does the secretary know that her husband is traveling? because robert gibbs would say nothing that would jeopardize the mission, not until everyone was out. but there's a great expectation that this is going to work and nailed not have sent him if they

didn't think it was going to work. they said you can play this card once, you can send a high level envoy once, but not twice and when you send that person, it has to work. so they have a pretty good idea that this is going to succeed. >> andrea mitchell traveling in nairobi with secretary of state hillary clinton. thank you for joining us. still ahead, the housing market seems to be bouncing back, but not necessarily for the well to do. we'll tell you why the market for pricey homes may not have bottomed out. and more money for the wildly popular cash for clunkers program. and we'll tell you about a new movement of americans who believe strongly, babies are to blame for the bad environment. we'll explain what they suggest parents do in the future.

"it's the economy" on msnbc.

♪ [ female announcer ] arthritis targets your body where it's wea where it's vulnerable. ♪ tylenol arthritis works with your body to block the pain, without interfering with certain high blood pressure medicines like aleve sometimes can. ♪ so you don't just feel better, you feel better knowing doctors recommend tylenol more than any other brand of pain reliever.

's progressive. call or click today.

welcome back to "it's the economy." when the housing market was booming, there were loads of investors who were interested in top of the line condos, promising luxurious amenities and developers answered that interest. >> it's call the oasis, it's in ft. myers, florida, it's all the extras that contessa always wants. one thing that's lacking for the tennants who live there, neighbors. only one resident lives there, one family. >> we have a good spot at the

pool every day. >> i thought when we got here we would meet our neighbors, have them over. >> go like to a movie theater, meet people there. >> the only neighbors we have on the insects and the animals. >> sounds fabulous. michelle, how does this happen? >> reporter: yeah at this point they would welcome annoying neighbors. and at this point we all wish we had a condo to themselves. you talk to these people and you know it's just the opposite. the family sunk their nest egg into a unit $430,000 the vast majority of it mortgaged. but when they began spending time here, they realized they were the only people left in this whole building, everybody else got out. this building was for the most part sold according to the

developers and according to the family's attorney. but the real estate crash started happening and people realized they were in trouble here. they started getting out, some people just walked away from their big deposits. two other families besides this family ended up closing on their unit. but because they paid cash they were able to swap out with a building next door. their lender will not allow them to do that and now they're stuck in this big, empty, kind of creepy condo building. they said one knignight somebodt in and started banging on their door. they said now they don't have the amenities that they bought into it. we sat down with a lender yesterday, here's what they said. >> i think it's fair to them that we're doing everything we can to resolve the problem. we have tried and tried and tried, for, you know, months. >> reporter: well the developer says, you can, it's the lender

that's causing the problems and the developer has actually come up with solutions and they're still trying, they say that everybody's working together. they were expecting a solution to this today. so far that hasn't happened. but the developer says it's not so easy to just buy out this family because the developer itself has huge debt, a billion and a half dollars right here in south florida. everybody took a gamble. the developer, the lender and the buyer. all of those are in a really tight spot. >> there's maintenance fees that you owe on a condo, obviously one family can't support the whole building. so this can't go on. so what's going to happen? >> reporter: the developer hasn't passed on the cost of maintaining this entire building to this one family. but the developer has had to eat that cost. to as a result they have turned off all the lights except for what the family might use.

but the developer says they just can't afford to keep this empty building going, so they want the family to move over to the next building. it's a big, complicated mess, but they're hoping do come up with a solution soon, probably just have them move into a unit in the neighboring building. now that unit is worth maybe a third of what they paid for it. >> michelle, thank you for joining us. what a mess. >> when it comes to housing numbers there,'s a growing divide now between the haves and the have-nots. on the high end, you find $750,000 or more homeowners are sinking deeper and deeper under water. joining us to discuss this the housing expert rodney anderson. he joins us from ft. worth, texas. you know there's people that are getting that guaranteed tax credit, letting you put as little as 3.5% down. that's what's causing a lot of problems, good at the bottom,

tough at the top, right? >> the jumbo market is very challenging right now and people are afraid to jump in, they have seen their stock portfolios shrink and they have also seen where bonuses have been eliminated for people other than a few wall street firms. but the jumbo people who are financing more than $750,000 are wealthy individuals who own their own companies and they have had to sink money into the capital of their businesses rather than put money down on their home. thornberg mortgage was the biggest bankruptcy in the country. and when they filed bankruptcy, they took the whole jumbo market down and that industry was $3.5 billion. >> a lot of people are throwing their hands up in the area and saying who gives -- who cares? i was going to say something

else. who cares that some rich person can't find a mortgage or lower their mortgage or refinance a big mcmansion or in some cases a second or a third home. >> but? >> values on many of these homes have drops as much as 50% in the last two years. that just brings down the whole market. what we need to see to turn this market around, we need the stock market to continue to go so people will start getting bonu bonuses, but we also need to see investors, vehicles in this jumbo loan market to jump in and start buying again. >> rodney, thank you. >> thank you for joining us, we appreciate it. >> thank you, ladies. >> it's true, it's just tough to hear.

>> bonuses? >> you got to get people buying. >> when you're seeing middle range condos as opposed to mcmansions. federal authorities will be watching every penny ruth madoff spends. >> the wife of ponzi scheme manager ruth madoff will have to account for every dollar she spends. we'll be right back. p-hop. ♪ singer: buckle up, everybody 'cause we're taking a ride ♪ ♪ that can strain your relationships and hurt your pride ♪ ♪ it's the credit roller coaster ♪ ♪ and as you can see it kinda bites! ♪ ♪ so sing the lyrics with me: ♪ when your debt goes up your score goes down ♪ ♪ when you pay a little off it goes the other way 'round ♪ ♪ it's just the same for everybody, every boy and girl ♪ ♪ the credit roller coaster makes you wanna hurl ♪ ♪ so throw your hands in the air, and wave 'em around ♪ ♪ like a wanna-be frat boy trying to get down ♪ ♪ then bring 'em right back to where your laptop's at... ♪ ♪ log on to free credit report dot com - stat! ♪

vo: free credit score and report with enrollment in triple advantage. has the fastest serve in the history of professional tennis. so i've come to this court to challenge his speed. ...on the internet. i'll be using the 3g at&t laptopconneccard. he won't. so i can book travel plans faster, check my account balances faster. all on the go. i'm bill kurtis and i'm faster than andy roddick. (announcer) "switch to the nations fastest 3g network" "and get the at&t laptopconnect card for free".

all right, call them the anti-birthers. if you care about the environment, you should have fewer children. they say, you know, recycle all you want. install energy efficient windows, cut back on the

driving, you knnegate all of th if you have two children. you have 40 times the carbon emissions that you would save by doing all those other good things. and british researchers have come up with the same conclusion. they say having babies is bad for the environment, millis a, you move. >> every additional mom adds a carbon footprint through the earth. >> i guess you have just decided that those children you're having weren't going to invent anything, that was going to help the environment, they weren't going to contribute anything. they wouldn't have initiated any green initiative. >> i'm going to tell them shame on you. >> we'll be right back. ththththh

some breaking news here on msnbc. white house spokesman robert gibbs just called mahmoud ahmadinejad the elected leader

of iran. he was asked whether president barack obama recognized the iranian president after the disputed president. we know that tomorrow is the formal swearing in for ahmadinejad for the first time we have seen since that protest against the elections. the white house is being careful not to comment on the legitimacy of those elections but has condemned the ior iranian government. there are three missing americans that are being detained or are in iranian custody and we're working to try and win their release as well. today former president bill clinton is working to bring two jailed u.s. journalists back from career. and in fact robert gibbs said in the same briefing just a few minutes ago, he's not commenting on the mission because they don't want to jeopardize that

mission. but we know that president clinton is asking for amnesty for the women from kim jong-il. in the msnbc news bureau in washington, msnbc analyst pat buchanan. what can former president bill clinton accomplish that the secretary of state could not? >> it's a very difficult situation, north korea wanted a very high level envoy to come and retrieve the two journalists and secretary of state clinton was not in the position to do that because of the talks on the nuclear situation are at a stand still, north korea has detonated a nuclear weapon, so it would not be appropriate for a senior u.s. official to go there. >> plus he just said that north korea has no friends because of their nuclear activities? >> they have been trading insults back and forth. the white house has been trying to depict president bill

clinton's mission there as a separate humanitarian mission unrelated to the ongoing diplomacy with the united states and north korea. it wouldn't happen witho >> pat, do you believe that? >> yeah, i think it certainly has been wired. i think north korea would not have the former president of the united states come to north korea, sit down with president kim jong-il and then send him home without those two women he came for. i think has been wired very much with hillary clinton and with the national security council and with president obama. the north koreans are saying, mr. clinton, i think it might be more than that, mr. clinton brought a message from obama and the talks were exhaustive. which means that bill clinton may be sitting down as a negotiator about renewing the six party talks with north korea on nuclear weapons. it looks like after all the bad

blood between hillary clinton and kim jong-il that we may have new -- >> former president clinton was carrying a message from barack obama and the white house has been very careful not to make any comments, again, because they say they don't want to jeopardize this. pat, is there a problem here? because we're looking at a similar situation in iran, now freelance journalists who intended to go and cover the elections in the kurdish part of iraq, crosses the border into iran, they are being detained and questioned by authorities. >> i think kim jong-il is using those two journalists as pawns to get the united states back into talks and back into

negotiations. he is in very tough physical condition himself and i think the iranians will observe what is going on and they will follow suit. >> what do you think glen. >> well, there's always a risk when you do this sort of thick. the situation with the journalists might be a somewhat different situation because those journalists have said they made a mistake and should not have entered into north korean territory. at least one of them i believe is said to be in poor health. so there might have been certain circumstances here that would, you know, make it necessary to send the president. i don't know what we do about the backpackers. >> glen kesler and pat buchanan, thank you very much. the cash for clunkers program is said to be approved before congress goes to its summer break.

>> joining us is the president of the village auto group and the massachusetts state director for the national automobile dealers association. you sell volvos, cadillacs, hondas, saubes, all sorts of cars, how does this look to you. >> this stimulus package is moving very, very well and we hope to keep it going. >> a lot of people are saying that the government should not be taking responsibility for gas guzzlers and rewarding people with new cars. >> i think this cash for clunkers bill goes beyond the automobile industry. this is broader and has a whole lot of repercussions for whole country. >> like what? >> i think the country is looking for some positive news especially from the automobile sector. and once they hear that car sales are beginning to rise and

factories are beginning to open and starting to make cars again, putting people back to work, all is all very, very positive news for the country. >> ray, i'm trying to quantify exactly what this means. we had a high envoy from ford who said that they have not reopened any factories as a result of this. it's difficult to quantitify what it really means. j.d. powers said that we're real talking about 110,000 new cars sold for a billion dollars. that's not really that much. how many new jobs do you think this has created? can you give us any numbers? >> i will tell you one thing, our inventory is seasonally low. so what's going to happen is we're going have to replenish our inventory and to do that they're going to have to start making more cars. >> thank you, sir. >> you're welcome. when a north carolina man

griped about water runoff, his town told him to put it in writing, so he did, on the side of his house. and he's upset about the runoff from a road project, and the city is citing him for violating town ordinances and he's being fined for each day he keeps the spray painted message on the side of his house. >> see what it says," screwed by the town of carry." i don't 't know why he should b fined, if he wants to write it on the side of his house. they said put it in writing, so technically, they're the ones who told him to do it. >> quick break here, we'll be right back. ♪

(announcer) regular kool-aid. goes almost three times further than soda. kool aid. delivering more smiles per gallon.

but i did. you need to talk to your doctor about aspirin. you need to be your own advocate. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. you take care of your kids, now it's time to take care of yourself.

"what do you mean homeowners insurance doesn't cover floods?" "a few inches of water caused all this?" "but i don't even live near the water." what you don't know about flood insurance may shock you. including the fact that a preferred risk policy starts as low as $119 a year. for an agent, call the number on your screen. imagine if you will the cost of a gallon of gas at 10 cents,

a brand new car set you back only $6 so. the year was 1932. duke ellington with this jazz class classic. >> you're prepping me for "trivial pursuit." tax receipts are on pace to drop 18% this year. this is the biggest single year decline since 1932 and the great depression because people are making so much less money. that's high we're seeing taxes go down so much. let's take a live look at the market, the dow right now trading up 20 points. this a day after the s&p closed above 9,0-- >> it's been interesting session, of course yesterday was a big day with the nasdaq and

the s&p crossing some key milestones, today it appears that the markets are meandering just a libd. the dow jones and the s&p recovering from a recent decline. a couple of things that are moving the markets today, just a couple of things that are being tossed around, pending home sales which have improved for the fifth straight month. we did have some better than expecting earnings from one home builder d.r. horton and that's giving a lift to its stock sales. also the data on personal income and spending. personal spending rose more than 40%. personal income declining by 1.3%. and keep in mind that's a worry when you have high unemployment and personal income declining, that raises questions about what consumer spending will be like in the future and that accounts for 2/3 of economic growth. a very positive long-term forecast being issued by cater bill par today.

anywhere between $1.15 to $2.25. in the next 10 years they could have earning power of $8 to $10 per share. >> here's an interesting way to keep the numbers of lawyers down at least temporarily. the university of miami law school is actually paying students not to show up. they're offering $5,000 for students if they agree not to attend next year. the school reportedly accepted too many students. don't you think they should keep track of that when they're sending out acceptance letters? one woman who graduated in april, who has been brutal, graduating and then looking for a job, trina thompson still unemployed. she's decided it's her alma mater's fault she can't get a job and she's suing for the cost

of her education, a total of $70,000. and author of the book 25 reasons why i won't hire you, what you did wrong before, during and after the interview. thank you for joining us. first of all, is trina alone here? do you think she has a case? >> there may not be a case for that, but i can surely understand where they're coming from. when people are out of work, i have been doing this for 20 years. and we encounter this every day, we're dealing with people that are out of work and you have to realize that people get depressed an when you're out of work for a long time and you're looking for a job, you have two choices, to either crawl under a rock and get depressed and start blaming everything else or you come out from under that rock and do something about it. one of the things is you have to stop depending on a resume. when i hear career experts give

advice about good eye contact and the perfect resume i kind of ci cringe, because i know getting a job is a lot more than great eye contact and the resume. you have to start searching for the unadvertised jobs. that's something that i teach on my site 25 reasons buy.com, we teach people to stop depending on those job postings. >> in this case, you have trina, the student who's suing monroe college saying that the office of career advancement did not help me with a full-time job placement. i'm also suing them because of the stress i have been going on. you say that's utterly ridiculous to rely on different ways of finding a job. the college career placement center should not be the way you get your job?

>> you have to be smart about how you're searching for a job. you can't send in a resume and expect something to happen. it's just not going to happen. you get out there and you get wise about house you're finding a job and you don't just depend on a job placement to find a job for you. >> net working on facebook, i'm out of a job do you know of anybody, that's a great way to start out. >> these are the people who know you the best and are -- >> why michael jackson's dermatologist says he want assay in the custody of the rock star's children. >> could it be a question of fussey map? details ahead. "it's the economy" only on msnbc. do just about anything.

it molds better... it grips better... and seals better. you can even drink water with it on. crest whestrips advanced seal. it's a breakthrough technology... that molds and adheres to your teeth better... ...giving you a dramatically whiter smile. whitening that fits any life and every smile. crest whitestrips advanced seal. we'vl ard about the trouble in the housing industry. the fact is, with all the talk of a national real estate market, your town, your neighborhood, your home, or the home you'd like to buy, are each unique. the national conversation may not apply at all. if you've been worrying about what your property may be worth, or wondering if your dream home may finally be affordable, ask a re/max agent or go to remax.com. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. ♪ ♪ which one's me - for a cool convertible or an suv? ♪ ♪ too bad i didn't know my credit was whack ♪

♪ 'cause now i'm driving off the lot in a used sub-compact. ♪ ♪ f-r-e-e, that spells free credit report dot com, baby. ♪ ♪ saw their ads on my tv ♪ thought about going but was too lazy ♪ ♪ now instead of looking fly and rollin' phat ♪ ♪ my legs are sticking to the vinyl ♪ ♪ and my posse's getting laughed at. ♪ ♪ f-r-e-e, that spells free- credit report dot com, baby. ♪

all right, this was the scene at the top of the hour, you saw right here on msnbc. president obama making a surprise appearance before the start of the white house briefing. the president who's celebrating his 48th birthday today, taking some time to bring some birthday cupcakes to helen thomas. helen turns 89 years old today. >> i hope she didn't have to share those cupcakes. i hate sharing. >> they can be scavengers, they just devour everything they put in front of them. >> the president doesn't have to share those cupcakes, does he? >> he has his own in the back. the president's gone from bowling a 37 to a very respectable 144? >> robert gibbs insists that president obama almost tripled his score over the weekend at camp david. >> he was horrible. this video we were showing you

was from last fall in pennsylvania, he really embarrassed himself on the lanes. here he's trying to get people to vote for him, people who love bowling and he stunk. >> his practice has paid off, so robert gibbs says the president has been practicing, the white house reporters skeptical, but it really happened. >> he needed photographicic evidence or something. >> we needed documentation that everyone could -- >> tough crowd. >> say no, it's not true, it couldn't possibly be true, it's not try. >> a kenyon birth certificate for barack obama. huffington post points out a slew of fact kl errors. kenya was a dominion at the time not a republic. and the signature of the religion strar signed by one e.f

lavender which happens to be a laundry detergent. a rather conservative bastion of journalism says, no, no, this must be true. more inclined to believe a kenyan birth certificate than one from hawaii. the jackson children are under the permanent guardianship of their grandmother katherine jackson. >> during the custody hearing, jackson dermatologist wanted to have a say in the custody. what did the judge say? >> reporter: he's going to allow attorneys for arnie kline to provide some evidence about what he's really talking about here. a statement was issued last night saying dr. kline has always had a special

relationship with paris, katharine and prince michael. he cares deeply for these children and he's looking out for their best interest. so if dr. klein is trying to assert that he has a special relationship with jackson's kids, then why not include the third child? that's where this goes from merely speculation to having some root here. put all the kids in, especially when dr. klein is saying, listen, i'm just trying to look out for their education and health care. what about blanket? he's definitely given us enough in this statement to fuel the fire. >> courtney, thank you for staying on top of that. >> arnie kline, either you're not the dna donor or you are. we have been all over the map today. >> david shuster and tamron hall

pick things up next. they will have the latest developments. former president clinton's mission to free two journalists in north korea today. have a good day. limb: dude that was sick! i've been hangin' up there for, what, like, forty years? and then - wham - here i am smacking the pretty off that windshield of yours. oh, what you're looking for an apology? well, toss another coin in the wishing well, pal. it's not happenin'. limb: hey, what's up, donnie? how you been? anncr: accidents are bad. anncr:but geico's good ding! with onsite windshield replacement. tylenol doesn't interfere with certain high blood pressure medicines the way aleve metimes can. that's one reason why doctors recommend tylenol more than any other brand of pain reliever.

♪ and now in my sixties, they are again. grandpa, are we there yet? i have the freedom to do what i want... and go where i want. grandpa, come on! freedom is what i like about my medicare supplement insurance. i can see the doctor i want, where i want, anywhere in the country. now your sixties can be a time of freedom again... with aarp medicare supplement insurance plans... insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. because any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare... will accept aarp medicare supplement insurance. anywhere in the u.s. the freedom to do my own thing, without worrying about which doctor i can see. medicare covers only about 80%... of your part b healthcare costs. the rest has to come out of your pocket. but with an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, you could save up to thousands of dollars... because it helps cover some of the out-of-pocket expenses... medicare doesn't.

and only these medicare supplement plans... have the aarp name... and cover more people nationwide... than any other medicare supplement insurance carrier. call today and you'll receive a free information kit... with a customized rate quote to help you choose the plan... that's right for you. you'll learn about a choice of plans... that help cover some of the 20% out-of-pocket costs... that medicare part b doesn't cover, making it easier to budget your annual healthcare expenses. oh, grandpa! and you'll discover how convenient and easy... it is to use your aarp medicare supplement insurance. you just show your card. no hassles. at this time of my life, freedom is everything. medicare only pays for part of your healthcare coverage. you have to come up with the rest. it's all about freedom of choice. back in the sixties, i went my own way. why stop now? so call today for a free information kit. when you call, you'll also receive... this free educational guide to help you... understand your medicare coverage options. it's yours free, so call now. and learn how aarp medicare supplement insurance...

can help make your sixties a time of freedom. again. it's a private humanitarian mission on the part of president clinton. >> this hour on the big picture, surprise diplomacy, former president bill clinton in north korea right now working to free two american journalists, conflicts reports on whether the trip is about more than just the journalists. beats them at their own game, the white house turns the table on internet misinformation going viral against bloggers who are bad mouthing the president's health care plan. "morning joe's" joe scarborough will be with us. a primary challenge for pennsylvania parties pushing senator arlen specter. pennsylvania governor ed rendel

joins us live. and ripped to shreds, a neighborhood torn apart about a flag honoring a soldier on a third tour in iraq. good afternoon, everybody, good afternoon, tamron. >> i'm live in new york and david our big picture today, bill clinton, you might say to the rescue. the former president is on a delicate mission to free two american journalists jails in north korea. the former president met with communist leaders and held exhaustive talks that covered a wide range of issues. clinton passed along a verbal message from president obama, but, keep in mind, the white house press secretary robert gibbs is denying that report, gibbs saying he won't comment further until president clinton

is home. >> this is obviously a very sensitive topic. we will hope to provide some more detail at a later point. our focus right now is on ensuring that the safety of two journalists that are in north korea right now. >> former president clinton is trying to secure the release of laura ling and euna lee. north korea accused them of sneaking into the country and sentenced them to 12 years of hard labor. the country's chief nuclear negotiator met president clinton. his presence raised the issue of whether nuclear issues could in fact be part of the meeting. chuck todd joins us life, and chuck, a lot of interesting details to talk about. but how did we get to the point where the former president ended up in north